A/N: who do you think deserved to win the Trial Games? I'm interested in hearing who you might pick out of the twenty-four really should've won.
Thank you for reading friends. Your support so far into this series has really helped me. xx

The Trial Games.

"Maya... we've been walking for h-hours..." Adelaide moans quietly. "Can't we rest...?"

"We can't risk it Adelaide," I growl from the overload of frustration. "Sin and Crux can't be far behind; we need to get as far away as possible."

"Don't be so cold to Adelaide Maya, she's only twelve," Holden says sternly. "-besides, that was over two hours ago, they're far away by now."

My heart aches as I watch Holden wrap a protective arm around his sister and tries to offer carrying her on his back. Our almost day-long walk had been entirely like this, with Adelaide crying for rest and me telling her we couldn't- only to be told off by Holden for being so short with her.
I can't help it. I'm just as tired as she is, but I know that the arena has to stop sooner or later- and we can't risk staying inside its perimeters for one more night.

It also didn't help that at every step I was faced with Holden and Adelaide's sibling affection for one another. They were constantly reassuring each other that it'd all be okay, and that they'd find a nice place to live- a place far, far away from Panem.
I feel so alone just watching them. Holden has said nothing about my weak confession back in the theatre- and I assume that could be his way of nicely showing that he doesn't return the feelings. I don't have anyone of my own to run away with. No family, siblings- or even friends anymore. Holden no longer felt like the boy I had walked to school with every morning. He was a stranger, angry and paranoid for his sister's protection.

'You fought so hard to get here, just leave them,' the inner voice snarls. 'Let them die here, you can escape- you can live, you can win...'

I shake my head frantically, trying desperately to drown out that little voice. As we have been walking, the further away we become from the arena- the angrier and louder it has become. I am starting to become paranoid myself, as it has begun hissing ideas of murdering Holden and Adelaide, saying that they're ruining my efforts.
What was more frightening is that every now and then- I found myself listening to the voices ideas... and then stopping in horror.

The voice has been my only constant 'companion' of sorts throughout this ordeal. It's given me encouragement, criticism that wasn't always appreciated- and more importantly, ideas. I hadn't really thought of it as dangerous in any way. It was just a little voice I had created to stake off loneliness, wasn't it?
...but now... it was starting to scare me so much that I was keeping two metre distance between me and the two siblings. I walk behind them, looking over my shoulder every now and again- flinching at any sound that surrounds us.

I know it's just a voice, but something inside me is wary that it holds more power over me than I'm assuming. It may just be my imagination, but whenever the voice began to whisper hisses of killing Holden and Adelaide, my hand instinctively twitches towards the cleaver that is clumsily tied to my skirt.

"I think it's time we took a break, it's almost midday and we've been walking since after midnight."

I look up and catch Holden's expression. He isn't suggesting we take a break, he is telling me they were taking a break. I never saw this side of him back home. He had always been kind and friendly. Now he was cold and inexplicably angry at me for what seems to be no reason.
I bite my lip as Adelaide slowly slumps to her knees and begins to cough, strangely quietly. Holden catches me eyeing her and furrows his eyebrows.

"-can you stop glaring? We'll get there okay?"

"I-I'm not glaring!" I'm shocked by his harsh tone. "I... Holden this is serious. Everyone's dead... we'll be dead if we don't take this seriously-"

"-who says we aren't taking it seriously?" Holden snaps, I instantly recoil a step back. "Just because we weren't out there in the 'action' like you were-"

"What..." I feel a curious anger begin to build up through the sadness. "...what do you mean by that?"

There's silence. Holden and I lock eyes, and I can feel my inner strength ebbing away from his angry gaze. I wish I could slip down into nothing to escape this glare, but all the fear, anger and upset is feeding the inner voice which starts up again... 'Ungrateful... these selfish... kill them-'

"M-Maya...?" Adelaide squeaks. "I-Is your hand okay...?"

Adelaide's words confuse me, but as I look down- I'm horrified to see that my hand has, on its own accord, clenched tightly around the cleaver's handle and pulled it until the knot tying it to my skirt has strained.
Panic spreads throughout my body. I'm really losing control of my actions- aren't I? Every time Holden says something against me, I can feel anger boiling over inside- and the suggestions to kill him grow stronger and stronger...

"...y-yeah, my hand's fine." I drop the cleaver and turn my head away from her, desperately hoping they didn't see the fear in my eyes. "I... I'm going to go see if there's any water nearby... the bottle's almost empty..."

There are no complaints to my leaving. Shaken and disappointed, and also feeling strangely humiliated- I quickly walk ahead, hoping neither of them can see how rattled I've grown in the past five minutes.

I know there's no water around here. The Gamemakers wouldn't have made water out here, because they certainly wouldn't have wanted the tributes travelling so far from their arena. Though, I'm curious if they've considered the possibility of the tributes escaping.
Surely they had, and that's why they made this forest- isn't it? So we would assume that it was a symbolic sort of barrier? Even though it's a weak theory, it fits well in my mind. They couldn't have thought of everything.

The trees are growing sparser and fewer after only five minutes of walking. Hope and excitement begin to slowly flood my veins as I break into a slow run- my instincts telling me that the end was close. The forest was ending- I just know it. Through the trees I can see a meadow coming into view, and beyond that- mountains, as far as the eye can see.

Yes! A smile as wide as my face stretches across my lips. Cisqua was right! The arena did end! There was hope! I can hear the chatter of birds just ahead that I hadn't heard anywhere near the arena. It must be safe here for birds to be congregating.
And the trees begin to part, and slowly the green pasture begins to smile at me in all its beauty. My breath slows and tears of joy begin to form as I reach forwards- almost to touch my freedom.

'-STOP!'

It goes blank, and suddenly I'm stumbling backwards without my legs accord- and I'm startled as a burning sensation sears up my arms. My breath is shallow, my heart is pounding and I can feel a surge of pain flood throughout my arteries. Startled, I look down at my hands and what I see frightens me so much I scream at the top of my lungs.

My fingertips are all but gone. The skin has been completely burned away, and I'm horrified to see the outline of my finger's bone prodding through the thin charred flesh. My scream echoes through the forest around as the birds on the other side of the invisible force field take flight, flying away into the mountain's embrace. I stare after them wildly, gazing at the invisible wall that had electrocuted me to the point of corroding my fingers off.
They were beyond medical treatment. I can feel my entire body tremble in fear as what looks like ash crumbles from my fingertips.

"What- WHAT IS THIS?!"

'...they thought ahead... you... STUPID... GIRL!'

The shriek that escapes me is anything but human. My breath is ragged and like a hungry dogs as I stumble to my feet, unable to even look at my fingertips and I clutch my hand that throbs in pain around my cleaver.

"NO!" I scream into the vacancy. "I DON'T ACCEPT THIS! I DON'T ACCEPT THIS-!"

I swing the cleaver towards the barrier, and my intestines lurch as I'm thrown back with a force I've never felt before. Tears fly through the air as I thrash about in pain, screaming and crying my rejection, over and over again like a wounded animal.

'-there's no way out of here Maya! If only you'd killed them when I told you to-!'

The voice inside is slowly melting into my own voice of reason. The rage overflows and I can feel my heart pump so fast it feels like I'm about to explode. I stagger to my feet, my neck bent as I stare down at my fingertips. The panic and horror begins to melt away as the sanity I had been clinging so desperately to disappears into shards as I see bloodstained bone piercing through several of my fingertips.

"...I can't forgive them..." I whisper, breathless and stunned. "They need to die..."

A tiny laugh escapes my empty lungs, and as I turn back into the forest- I stare up into the sky as my body shakes as I scream with an inhuman laughter I could never call my own. My eyes burn wild as this strange horrific power floods me as I imagine the Gamemakers watching my desperation up until this point.

"-you hear me Mister President?!" I laugh, reaching my charred skeletal hands upwards. "Even if I don't kill you- someone will, and you'll die too! You Gamemakers too! And in hell we are all going to kill youu~"

-and then I hear an alarm ring, and my moment of insanity breaks as I'm brought crashing back into reality. Who was that? Who just died? Who was that alarm for?! Was it Holden, Adelaide, Sin or Crux? Who was it for!?

Oh my god. Panic sweeps over me, a panic stronger than any I've felt in the arena. I'm really trapped in here. I'm really going to die. There's no escape, there's no way out. My strength fades, the pain multiples and the fear is of such ferocity that I'm too terrified to cry.

-what do I do? Someone, anyone- what am I supposed to do?!